for how long does Columbia keep student info. after graduation?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>All the information, including essay(s) we submitted is obviously their property now. Does anyone know if they keep them forever? Or at least will they have the right to disclose them to the third parties? For example: can some day, some journalist go there and request the necessary information to undermine you in any way?</p>

2

<p>Are you concerned about something you submitted? I suggest some Comedy Central during this understandably stressful period!</p>

3

<p>Sorry, my response was not responsive. I sincerely doubt any admissions office allows any applicant’s information to be released. I maintain that Comedy Central is a great outlet during these impatient times, when minutes feel like hours (and days feel like weeks).</p>

4

<p>I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t think a college is allowed to give away your info, just because some person or organization asked for it.</p>

<p>That’s just my guess, anyways.</p>

5

<p>no way. don’t worry, no journalist will be combing through the columbia admissions archives to unearth your essays–or worse, your disciplinary record that says you got caught having a threesome in Butler.</p>

6

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I think, all things considered, that I would accept this tradeoff.</p>

7

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<p>Is it OBVIOUSLY their property? I would think you still retain the intellectual property rights to anything in your application, namely your essay. I don’t remember signing anything when I applied to colleges that I was transferring the copyrights to my essays and that they could publish my essay in some book.</p>

8

<p>Old days: microfilm
New days: scanned and electronic docs</p>

<p>These will both be around for a long time.</p>

9

<p>I think your right to privacy for these documents is well-protected (under some act of Congress passed in 1974, informally called, I believe, the Buckley Amendment). Don’t you think if this stuff was readily accessible/available, we would have all read Barack Obama’s essays by now? Personally, I believe (from my experience at other schools), that all the subjective material is removed at some point and only objective information (transcript, test scores) is retained, but I do not know this for a fact.</p>